Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race was a race that could have helped Richard Childress Racing’s hopes of solidifying one or more of its three drivers into the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

But as things turned out, RCR made just limited gains. Now the pressure ratchets up much more significantly with just two races left to make the Chase.

Having finished 13th at Bristol, Ryan Newman remained in the Chase hunt, currently ranked ninth in the overall Sprint Cup standings and 14th in the 16-driver preliminary Chase field.

“Looking back, both Luke (crew chief – Lambert) and I think we should have taken four tires on that last pit stop,” Newman said. “Our No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet was just too tight that last run to maintain a top-10 spot.

“Overall, it was a good night for us, especially for our Caterpillar pit crew. They were on top of their game tonight and I couldn’t be more proud of them. I am looking forward now to Atlanta and maybe we can get a win. It would be nice to take some pressure off of ourselves and get in the Chase.”

The driver who made the most upward progress was Paul Menard, who finished ninth in the race and, as a result, climbed two positions in the Cup season standings, from 17th to 15th.

However, because there are five drivers behind him in the rankings that have wins and have already clinched playoff berths (Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola and Denny Hamlin), Menard is in a must-win situation in both Atlanta this coming Sunday and Richmond the following Saturday if he hopes to make the Chase.

“We had a good car today,” said Menard, who earned his 11th top-10 finish of the season at Bristol. “Two tires really changed the handling and were no good for our car so that set us back a little bit. I’m proud of my guys for the way they kept digging.”

Sprint Cup rookie Austin Dillon had the roughest night of all three RCR drivers, finishing 28th and dropping one spot in the Cup standings (from 13th to 14th).

“Tonight was definitely not the finish we were hoping for, or the way we were expecting the race to go,” Dillon said. “However, sometimes you will have instances like that and you just have to shake it off and move onto the next race.

“… We’re going to give it our all next week at Atlanta Motor Speedway to get a win and make it into the Chase.”

Much like Menard, Dillon – who leads his teammate by five points in the Cup rankings – has to win at Richmond or Atlanta.

Otherwise, he’ll fall short of his goal of making the Chase in his first full season in the Sprint Cup Series.

The second season of “Dinner with Racers,” presented by Continental Tire, drops its first batch of episodes today.

The 28-episode season follows the first 28 episodes released last year. This year, podcast hosts and sports car veterans Sean Heckman and Ryan Eversley saddled up in a Honda Odyssey minivan for the cross-country tour, while riding on Continental Tires.

There’s some great guests and details. Here’s the full breakdown, plus a video, below:

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One year after the successful debut of the motorsport podcast series “Dinner with Racers,” the antics of Ryan Eversley and Sean Heckman have returned for the binge release of “Season Two,” launching today. Following their 2015 debut that featured a month-long road trip recording 26 conversations “over dinner” with some of the most interesting characters in motorsports, the duo will launch another 28 recordings for their 2016 adventure. The second season will be released in two waves, with “Release One” launching the first 14 recordings immediately, and “Release Two” featuring an additional 14 recordings slated to release on December 16. All episodes can be found at www.dinnerwithracers.com or via iTunes.

Traveling for 40 days across 29 states, and covering 12,000 miles in 2016, the trip was made possible in part by the Honda Odyssey that was lent to the team by American Honda Motor Co., Inc, and most importantly thanks to a continuing title partnership with Continental Tire, who not only provided Cross Contact LX20 tires for the trip but covered the team’s expenses, as well as every meal.

Continuing the same theme from the debut season, #DWR2 follows a nearly identical format. A factory racing driver for Acura in the World Challenge series, Ryan Eversley makes up half of the hosting lineup, with motorsport marketing / creative content veteran Sean Heckman completing the duo. Using their unique blend of humor, insight, experience, as well as genuine love of the sport, Eversley and Heckman pick up right where they left off in Season One, exposing some of the most unique and entertaining stories from their variety of guests.

Meeting up with 28 different characters “over dinner,” listeners will exposed to a variety of personalities, everything from NASCAR and IndyCar star drivers, to some of the most respected engineers and mechanics, journalists, and broadcasters in the business. Stories cover everything from what it was like to be the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and then Daytona 500, to giving up a contract worth over $2mil just to be a “good guy,” to turning a satiric twitter account in to a full-time job, as well as enjoying life after nearly three decades in prison. Topics include everything from a transgender pig, to being given dead cat whiskers as a good luck charm, to having guns pulled in the middle of a race shop, and even buying a race track in the hopes of laundering money through it.

For Ryan Eversley, a chance to continue the series was a welcome one.

“I know it’s a cliché, but It truly is such an honor and a privilege to be able to do this,” stated Eversley. “Both Sean and I were truly blown away by the fan support from Season One, it’s honestly something we weren’t expecting. It really meant a lot to get so many nice comments, and that kept us very motivated for Season Two. I think our genuine love of the sport translates when people listen, because we really enjoy hearing the real back stories in what makes everyone so unique. This season did not disappoint us at all. This show lives and dies by its guests, and we couldn’t have been luckier to have such a great group who were not only engaging and interesting, but also incredibly gracious with their time. It’s an absolute blast doing this, and we really appreciate Continental for continuing their support, as well as Honda for giving us an incredibly comfortable car for such a long trip.”

For Sean Heckman, a similar sentiment is shared.

“What he said,” stated Heckman.

Additionally, the series will continue to support less exposed musical acts, with each episode promoting a variety of musicians and bands at the close of every episode.

Ahead of the event in Las Vegas, each of the 10 of the sim racers that have qualified have been paired up with a Formula E team.

“I’d like to officially welcome the sim racers who qualified through the Road to Vegas Challenge to participate in the inaugural Visa Vegas eRace,” Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag said.

“I’ve been following the progress of the sim racers throughout the qualification process, and I can’t wait to see them on the same track as the rest of the Formula E grid.

“Accessibility and fan engagement are two of the key cornerstones of Formula E, and what better way to promote this than getting the sim racers to compete in the same colours as their Formula E counterparts – it will be fascinating to see who comes out on top.”